Musk explained how Russians could obtain Starlink for the war against Ukraine
Kyiv • UNN
Elon Musk stated that Russian military obtained Starlink terminals through smuggling. To solve the problem, the company created a "whitelist" of approved devices together with the Ukrainian government.
Elon Musk, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, said that Starlink terminals for accessing satellite internet could have been obtained by the Russian military, amid the fact that the devices were not officially sold to Russians, indicating that this could have happened through smuggling, as he stated in an interview with The Economist, reports UNN.
"Well, no, we were never at any point selling Starlink to Russians. (...) Well, they essentially got Starlink units that they ordered through Ukraine and then smuggled them into Eastern Ukraine where the Russians are. And were then using them in some cases for attacks,"
According to him, "now,.. to solve this problem, we have worked with the Ukrainian government to create a 'whitelist' of approved Starlink terminals."
"This has some drawbacks, because a whole bunch of people who were just innocent Starlink users and were simply trying to get internet access for work or study now don't have Starlink," he added.